Kenya: Microsoft closes part of its Nairobi engineering center, opened in 2019
Microsoft will close part of its Africa Development Centre in Nairobi as part of a reorganization of its engineering activities, the American company confirmed to Capital FM Business on October 13, 2026. The group says it is communicating directly with its Kenyan employees regarding these changes, without specifying the number of positions affected or the timeline.
A showcase for African engineering
Opened in 2019, the Nairobi center was presented as a hub for software development, design, research, and innovation for East Africa. It also housed a Microsoft Garage, an incubation space for technology projects. In 2022, it had more than 450 full-time employees, divided between software engineering, machine learning, data science, and infrastructure, according to Capital FM. The company states it remains committed to Kenya and will retain staff there to support the country's digital transformation ambitions.
The fourth departure in two years
The announcement adds to a series of withdrawals by multinationals from the Kenyan market. In December 2024, Procter & Gamble left the country, leading to the elimination of more than 850 jobs, with the company citing operating costs, currency fluctuations, and a decline in sales. GlaxoSmithKline ended its direct operations in Kenya after about sixty years of presence. Banknote printer De La Rue reduced its Kenyan workforce by 40%.
Engineers remain, but the strategy needs review
The episode raises a question that goes beyond Nairobi. For ten years, several African capitals have bet on the establishment of research centers by American giants to anchor a local technology industry, offering land, tax incentives, and visibility. But a decision made in Redmond, for reasons of internal reorganization, can undo in a few weeks what a country has spent years attracting.
Human capital, however, does not disappear: the engineers, data scientists, and researchers trained in these centers remain on the continent, and several previous waves of layoffs, in Nigeria as well as in South Africa, have fueled local start-ups. The question is whether Kenya, whose digital sector is one of the densest in East Africa, will be able to retain these skills rather than seeing them leave for Europe or the Gulf. Neither the Kenyan government nor the unions had reacted publicly as of October 13, according to Capital FM.
This article was written in French with the help of artificial intelligence from the sources cited below, then translated from French automatically. Read the original.
